Discover

'Michel Debré' (15 January, 1912 – 2 August, 1996) was a French Gaullist politician. Considered like "the father" of the Constitution of 1958, he was the first Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic. He served under President Charles de Gaulle from 1959 to 1962.
Debré was born in Paris. Son of the well-know pediatrician Robert Debré, Jewish and converted to Catholicism in order to marry, he was qualified in Law and Politics. Member of the Council of State, he joined in 1938 the staff of the Economy Minister Paul Reynaud.
Resistant during the World War 2, he integrated the staff of Charles de Gaulle in 1945. Faithful of the General, he was a founding member of the Rally of the French People (RPF). Senator of Indre-et-Loire, he was a virulent opponent to the Fourth Republic.
When De Gaulle took the lead of the cabinet, after the 13 May 1958 crisis, he became Minister of Justice and oversaw the drafting of the new constitution. Then, after his election as President of France, De Gaulle chose him as Prime Minister. He was replaced by Georges Pompidou in 1962.
Defeated in the 1962, he was elected deputy of Réunion one year later. He returned in the cabinet as Minister of Economics in 1966. He was faced with the criticism of his predecessor Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who wanted distance himself with the Gaullists. Nominated Foreign Minister after the May 1968 crisis, he seved as Defense Minister under President Pompidou, from 1969 to 1973. His dismissal was perceived as the sign of Pompidou's will to emancipate from the "barons of Gaullism".
He appeared as the attendant of the Gaullist inheritance, criticizing De Gaulle's successors. He was candidate in the 1981 presidential election but, lacking the support of any large party, he scored only 1,66% of vote.
Michel Debré had four sons : Vincent Debré (1939-), businessman, François Debré (1942-), journalist, Bernard Debré (born in 1944), urologist and politician, and his fraternal twin, Jean-Louis Debré, politician. See Debré family.
==Debré's Government, 8 January 1959 - 15 April 1962==

★ Michel Debré - Prime Minister

★ Maurice Couve de Murville - Minister of Foreign Affairs

★ Pierre Guillaumat - Minister of Armies

★ Jean Berthoin - Minister of the Interior

★ Antoine Pinay - Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs

★ Jean-Marcel Jeanneney - Minister of Commerce and Industry

★ Paul Bacon - Minister of Labour

★ Edmond Michelet - Minister of Justice

★ André Boulloche - Minister of National Education

★ Raymond Triboulet - Minister of Veterans

★ André Malraux - Minister of Cultural Affairs

★ Roger Houdet - Minister of Agriculture

★ Robert Buron - Minister of Public Works and Transport

★ Bernard Chenot - Minister of Public Health and Population

★ Bernard Cornut-Gentille - Minister of Posts and Telecommunications

★ Roger Frey - Minister of Information

★ Pierre Sudreau - Minister of Construction
'Changes'

★ 27 March 1959 - Robert Lecourt enters the Cabinet as Minister of Cooperation.

★ 27 May 1959 - Henri Rochereau succeeds Houdet as Minister of Agriculture.

★ 28 May 1959 - Pierre Chatenet succeeds Berthoin as Minister of the Interior.

★ 23 December 1959 - Debré succeeds Boulloche as interim Minister of National Education.

★ 13 January 1960 - Wilfrid Baumgartner succeeds Pinay as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs.

★ 15 January 1960 - Louis Joxe succeeds Debré as Minister of National Education

★ 5 February 1960 - Pierre Messmer succeeds Guillaumat as Minister of Armies. Robert Lecourt becomes Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories and of the Sahara. His previous office of Minister of Cooperation is abolished. Michel Maurice-Bokanowski succeeds Cornut-Gentille as Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. Louis Terrenoire succeeds Frey as Minister of Information.

★ 23 November 1960 - Louis Joxe becomes Minister of Algerian Affairs. Pierre Guillaumat succeeds Joxe as interim Minister of National Education.

★ 20 February 1961 - Lucien Paye succeeds Guillaumat as Minister of National Education.

★ 6 May 1961 - Roger Frey succeeds Chatenet as Minister of the Interior.

★ 18 May 1961 - Jean Foyer enters the ministry as Minister of Cooperation.

★ 24 August 1961 - Bernard Chenot succeeds Michelet as Minister of Justice. Joseph Fontanet succeeds Chenot as Minister of Public Health and Population. Edgard Pisani succeeds Rochereau as Minister of Agriculture. Louis Jacquinot succeeds Lecourt as Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories and Sahara. Terrenoire ceases to be Minister of Information, and the office is abolished.

★ 19 January 1962 - Valéry Giscard d'Estaing succeeds Baumgartner as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs.